135 I Really Don't Think So [Arc 20]
[This arc takes place during the previous.
If Matoi & Rin are the only ones "in-scene", assume they are speaking in Japanese -- I thought my usual parentheses denotation of such would be annoying in longer dialogues. Rin's English is *okay*. (The parentheses stay in fights. This is what we refer to as 'laziness in editing'. It's a 600k+ word novel for free, allow me a lil slack.)]
[ARC 20: (NOT) BORN IN THE USA]
As Matoi packed her girlfriend's luggage into the trunk of her car, she noticed a hastily-stuffed 'BLOOM INTO YOU' yuri manga stuffed near the top of the bag. It was a statement she had often wondered since she began dating the Ueno student Rin Higashikata, who had come to visit for this week in March. Rin's overexcited reaction to Matoi had just caused quite a stir in the airport; one Matoi hoped would not repeat so that she did not have to deal with more people viewing her.
She felt a little embarrassed over it all, though she felt a sort of harmony over how Rin was indeed Rin, despite the span of distance & time between them since October in Japan. If anything it had intensified her.
As she sat down in the driver's seat, Rin leaned over and kissed her. A relationship was unfamiliar ground for Matoi, but she had grown comfortable with Rin over the past months; and she also thought herself immune to the easily-missable fuck-ups so many engage with their first relationships. She smiled, rubbed Rin's hand, and started driving. For a minute they sat in relative silence, saying & asking certain things slowly, as if feeling that the other was still as they had been in online calls and chats, then were soon themselves again.
"I-I'm sorry if I was a little excitable back there." laughed Rin. "I know that you hate having attention drawn to you in public, but I was just so excited to see you. And I *am* so excited to see you."
"Something you made very clear to everyone who was watching us."
"Oh, you're the president, they would have been watching you anyway." Rin smiled. "Was it really that embarrassing for you?"
Matoi shrugged. "I'd simply prefer to not see or be seen by straight people. Or men. But I'm glad to see you, Rin - I was just caught a little off-guard by it. You know how I feel about that type of public affection."
"Yes, and I've never understood why. You were so stiff back in Japan, and... oh, forget about all that. Erm, were you able to make those restaurant reservations I was asking about? I saw it was a little ways away from Urasaria, so..."
"Yes, I did. Were you alright with the other three coming along?"
Rin nodded. "Yes, um. I just hope they don't expect my English to be too fluent."
"It'll be alright. They're very un-judgmental."
As Matoi pulled out to the highway, Rin asked her if they were close to Urasaria. "Not yet. It'll be about another hour of driving."
"Is there not a train?"
Matoi laughed thinking she was joking, then remembered Japan's infrastructure. "I- not here, no. America has very little public transportation outside of cities or Urasaria. … And even the former is barely functional, most of the time."
Rin laughed thinking she was joking. She noticed a 7/11 convenience store sign up ahead. "Does America have 7/11 too?"
"Mmhm. It isn't … it doesn't have the same role as in Japan, though. Convenience stores mostly sell junk food or soda."
"Well, with an endorsement like that, I'd still like to go there for my first store in America. I have a whole list I want to go through."
"I suppose it can only be better from there."
"Exactly."
Matoi pulled off the highway. Rin was excited, not only for this but in thinking of all the things her & Matoi would do together: some of them were even sexual! She felt that if this trip went well it would be a punctuation mark on a long sentence of short, tenuous relationships she had had back in Japan.
As they pulled into the 7/11 & gas stations' parking spaces, Matoi explained that the difference between American and Japanese convenience stores was that 7/11 was generally trustworthy for a decent packaged meal in Japan, and in frozen sugar & nacho cheese filled with every heart-attack causing compound known to woman in America. Matoi bought her a few giant bags of chips, a soda, a hotdog, and they went outside and back in to their car.
Matoi peeled her window down as she started the engine, and in the next instant -
- her car lurched forward -
" - Sekisetsu!" shouted Rin -
- and froze it right before it could crash in to the convenience store's wall ahead; the two shot up and got out, Rin still with drink in-hand -
" - agh." she winced as she glanced back, seeing her hotdog frozen to her seat of ice. As the two stepped out of the car, something sticky touched their ankles; their eyes shot down -
- and saw colonies of barnacles gnawing at their heels and stuck to their skin; Rin froze them alive and plucked them off, and Matoi on the other end blasted them away with Wedding's missiles, veil fully formed as Rin stepped up behind the vehicle -
"( - Matoi! Barnacles!)" she shouted, relevantly, exhaust pipe leaking brown & sticky creatures -
"( - it's still running.)" sighed Matoi to her car. She dipped her hand inside the window as Rin rushed up beside her -
- but more barnacles started oozing out of her air conditioning's vents, forming solid hands and gripping Matoi's wrist tight, and as they yanked her against her car -
" - Kekkonshiki!" she shouted; two lasers hit the pests -
- but up her arm they still grew, seemingly unaffected and starting to sap her strength; at her side, a red icicle formed in Rin's hand -
"( - sorry.)" she winced, and slashed down Matoi's arm; blood gushed out and dripped down her arm & underneath the barnacles - " - Sekisetsu!"
- and the foul creatures fell off like tongues stuck to frozen poles as Matoi's blood turned to ice, slipping off with the frozen case over her arm. With no time to waste, Matoi shut down her engine, and the two stepped back carefully. They saw more colonies of barnacles fading underneath the car as a scream rose from within the store, and Rin readied to rush inside -
"( - wait.)" said Matoi, eyes careful on the front door. "(Don't go in yet.)"
"(I - yes.)" nodded Rin quickly. "(Barnacles. Barnacles that - do they suck energy? Um, temperature?)" She nodded again and laughed. "(I have it.)"
Matoi laughed as she saw Rin shake her soda. "(Go ahead.)"
"(I'll clean it with Fallen Snow after.)" she laughed -
- and dumped her soda on Matoi's head; a second soda for herself, and the two dripped in liquid thicker than blood, Sekisetsu ready to freeze off another barnacle barrage. Matoi rushed up to the store's wall, and Rin readied beside as Wedding's eyes grew heated, but in the next instant -
- they saw a man burst out of the store's doors, eyes widening as he saw the two - " - gotta be fucking -"
" - Urasaria!" shouted Matoi; one missile burst out of her shoulder and flew towards him -
- but the next scene was instant. Barnacles formed on his arms as he raised them to block -
- and the explosion only tore off half of the stubborn colonies as he staggered back, starting his fleeing between the tanks of petrol & away from the women. Rin laughed as they rushed in pursuit, another idea growing in her head that she whispered to Matoi; Matoi nodded, and in the next instant -
- barnacles formed on the gas tanks; Wedding's lasers shot towards the man as he fled -
- and a dozen geysers of gasoline burst out to block the heated beam's path -
- but her lasers retreated back to their cold home just in time for her missiles to burst out of her shoulders, and as they hit the foul streams, the shockwaves blasted them towards the man -
- who turned and cursed as he started dripping in gas, barnacles desperately forming as his clothes were drenched; one single streak connected him to Rin, and in the next instant -
" - Sekisetsu!" she shouted, hands sweeping down as Matoi fired another explosive barrage; his barnacle-arms made to block it again -
- and as he felt the gasoline freeze & fall away, taking his protection away with it, he was doomed and he knew it -
- and the explosions blew him in to a dozen chunks of gore, and his body parts scattered all over the lot and his blood rained down, nothing but twelfths left of him and a still beating heart ahead.
Matoi looked at Rin, who had seized up for a second. "Are you alright? You look shocked."
"Y-Yes." she laughed. "I just had my Ueno instincts kick in of *not* doing that. I-I still get a little nervous after the last one."
(To remind you: Rin's previous kill this year had been in Japan, decapitating a host that had attempted to attack Mia.)
"Do they still believe Mia did it?" said Matoi as they went back to her car.
"Yes. But I felt bad for them banning her from the county. I don't know. I'm a little nervous about seeing her later, in case she..."
"Rin, Mia doesn't care about going to Japan. She barely liked it the first time."
"Yes, but I still feel there was some other way I could have done that. I don't know, maybe if I had-"
"Why didn't Yamato do anything? He has a wind Revenant - he could have easily blasted Mia's attacker away. It would have been far easier fro him to explain that, then to put you in the position of needing to decapitate someone. What about Daishi? Did he ever offer you anything?"
"No, and I don't think he would have lied to defend me if I asked."
"Exactly. The point I want to make, Rin, is that ... I've sometimes noticed you feel responsible for men to the point where *their* mistakes make *you* feel guilty. A lot of women are like that. It's how we're socialized."
Rin nodded. "I guess you're right. I don't know, I usually partner with Yamato -- but you're right that I do feel guilty for his own laziness. Actually, there was one time where he asked me to go fishing with Sekisetsu, and..."
And so for the drive back to Urasaria, Rin went on about her story at Ueno, while Matoi gave her bits of advice much like the one given earlier. Rin was used to Matoi's direct communication style, so she did not mind nor necessarily accept all of these. As earlier limned, Rin had only half a sense of herself due to an unstable childhood and parents more apathetic than loving, so she tried to glom on to advice that she felt would make her a better person or more useful to society.
She knew that as they approached the area around Urasaria there would be more poverty, but for now she simply let the urban sprawl in her window, and assumed whatever Matoi called 'driving' was in accordance with American laws. (It was not. By any fashion.) But she liked America, and partially because she did not really like Ueno or Japan.
The Japanese system of career progression from student to federal professional meant that her success would largely be determined by who she knew, rather than her displayed talent & skill. Merely continuing to produce good work at solid pace would not lend her a better position than her peers who did even less. Even at the time of ARC 14, her & Yamato's work had been consistently undervalued, hidden under a useless investigation of her accidental kill to confirm that it was most likely Mia's confessed fault. This was yet another feature of Japan's legal system: fear of failure and incentives against such meant that many cases were either pressured to find results or never be presented at all.
She felt that America was different, as if a land where an individual could raise themselves from obscurity to fame through shrewd effort. It was one of the reasons Matoi had always seemed more a product of America than of Japan, and why their relationship seemed to not be tinged with that Ueno professionalism; if Matoi liked someone she would make it known, and especially if she disliked them. Not so at Ueno.
Then they were at Urasaria, and Matoi introduced Rin to the other three of Mia & Marisa & Samuel. She felt even more embarrassed that they all seemed to be comparing the two, as if wondering how *they* had gotten together. Only Mia seemed to act like a normal human being over it, likely because she knew Matoi the best out of them and was the only other actually in a relationship herself. Subtly it had often been a template for Matoi's own.
As they all sat in the car as Matoi drove, there were then the usual inundation with questions about Japanese culture, what type of movies Rin liked and her favorite novels; most of the yuri manga was rather familiar to Marisa and the anime to Mia. Matoi tried to fill Rin in with a few other nuances of American culture, ones she had learned herself; such as that garages were frequently used for storage in America but rarely in Japan, due to the latter's status as a symbol of luxury.
Yet throughout all this questioning, Rin felt an odd sense of racial inferiority, almost compensatory in a sense. She attributed it to the rise in far-right politicians back home, who saw such encroachement onto Japanese culture as a form of imperialism; that Americans could not understand the Japanese mindset and it was tantamount to colonialism to even try. It was especially apparent to her in seeing Matoi kill earlier, for she found herself wishing she could do so for Ueno.
"I-I am still trying to get a sense of... scale." nodded Rin, looking over at Matoi for reassurance. "With America."
"Yeah, I kinda miss those trains at Ueno." Marisa shrugged. "Like, when we were there, we got everywhere super-quick, didn't we?"
"Though the portion sizes were much smaller." muttered Samuel. "Has Matoi bought you any soda yet?"
"Yes. It concerned me." said Rin and they laughed. "It is, um… (…Matoi, how do you say large?)"
"Very big."
"Very big."
"(Precisely why I bought you one. A Japanese large is an American small. In soda as well as people.)"
Rin giggled. "(Oh, you stop.)"
"(If you aren't careful, you may be Samuel's weight by the time you're back at Ueno.)"
Matoi smirked, asked Rin if she minded her repeating it, then did so to a few laughs.
"Okay, so you gotta tell me." said Marisa. "'cuz I've been trying to ask Matoi this for six months and she doesn't say anything: how did you get together?"
"(I wonder if I should translate that one.)" Matoi glanced at the rearview. "(Marisa is single, and she likely will be until the rats stop laughing in the attic.)"
Rin giggled. "(Matoi, stop. Don't be mean. What is she asking exactly?)"
"(She asked how we met.)"
In her decent English, Rin explained that she had decided to ask Matoi out a few days before they were to leave Japan, and that she had received a stiff hug by the end of their first date & a number by which they could stay in contact. Sometimes first meetings are not the earth-fracturing truths one expects them to be.
As she parked, Matoi glanced at Mia in the rearview. "By the way, Mia, I read recently that Japan has made your ban permanent. I hope you aren't too unsettled by the news."
Internally Mia thought perhaps she should have finished the job with that first Solar Beam. (As you have learned, while Mia is not a bitter person, she is one with a sense of a grudge.)
"I don't care." Mia shrugged. "I'll just ban them from Urasaria next year."
"Yeah, like. I don't wanna be rude, but they're probably just as corrupt as American ones anyway." said Marisa. "They get away with so much shit just 'cuz they have money."
Matoi translated it back into Japanese to reassure Rin, then enjoyed the rest of their afternoon lunch. Afterwards, the two spent the rest of day around various destinations close to Urasaria, then went back to Matoi's mansion for the night.
Rin decided she would try a little coquetry with Matoi in private. She scooted in closer to Matoi on the couch, enough that her breasts would rub against her, but not so much as to be accused of intentionally doing so. "Matoi, my shoulders are feeling a little sore..."
"I can show you where the infirmary is."
Rin grimaced.
"...well, no, I think I, um... may need a little rest in bed..."
Matoi looked over at Rin, stupidly enough that Rin grabbed her hands, placed them on her back, then nestled herself against Matoi's chest.
"Do you understand now?"
"I actually understood the first time."
"Why do you enjoy teasing me?"
"Mm. I don't know what you're talking about."
Rin pushed Matoi over, a little lightly, and was soon on top of her, letting Matoi kiss her and pull her further in. After some minutes of this, Rin decided to stand up to undress for Matoi, but shrieked as her foot touched the floor; she started stamping around and kicking her feet.
"What is it?" Matoi sat up.
"Cockroach! I-I felt it on my foot!"
Matoi rolled her eyes and stood beside Rin to look around. "I thought you had seen a Rev-"
"I-It's still moving!" Rin clung to her. "Kill it! Squash it like that man earlier!"
"Rin, I don't see it."
"It's over there! B-Between the cushions!"
A laser shot towards the little bug as Rin shrieked again. "You missed! How did you miss it?!"
"I hunt human insects, not their counterparts." Matoi shrugged, then turned to resume what she was about to do to Rin. "Now, I was-"
"No!" A pillar of ice brought Rin up to the ceiling. "N-Not until you kill it!"
